A few days ago I posted an item questioning how the media define racial sensitivity and insensitivity in polls. An AP/Yahoo poll that purported to show that a large percentage of Democrats might not vote for Barack Obama for racial reasons was in the news at the time.
I turns out there was reason to be concerned about the methodology used in that AP/Yahoo poll:
Since many people are uncomfortable discussing race with pollsters and others they do not know, the poll also used subtler techniques.
For one thing, the survey was conducted online, as have all AP-Yahoo News polls since they began last November. Studies have shown people are more willing to reveal potentially unpopular attitudes on a computer than in questioning by a live interviewer.
The poll also used a technique aimed at measuring what psychologists call “affect misattribution.” This involved showing faces of people of different races quickly on a screen before displaying a neutral image that people were asked to rate as pleasant or unpleasant. Studies have shown that people consciously or unconsciously transfer their feelings about the photograph to the object they are rating.
As NewsBusters’ Tom Blumer points out, “affect misattribution” is a sketchy technique at best:
As to the “affect misattribution,” I’m supposed to believe that whites will rate a “neutral” image negative if they saw a bunch of faces quickly on a screen just before that. Even if they “transfer their feelings” to the “neutral” image, what in the world does that prove or disprove about voters’ willingness to vote for or against a black presidential candidate?
